The new Sadako reveals her face

On May 11th, distributor Kadokawa Pictures has finally revealed the actress who will be playing the Japanese horror icon Sadako in the upcoming movie ‘Sadako 3D‘.

At a special advanced screening in April, a selected audience was already able to see the majority of the movie, except for the last 12 minutes that revealed the face of Sadako. After the screening, Sadako herself made a surprise appearance at the stage greeting and went to throw the opening pitch of a baseball game a few days later.

Many people became curious about which actress is hiding behind the long black hair and today it was revealed that it’s no other than young actress Hashimoto Ai who has been playing Sadako all this time. Hashimoto received many positive criticism after her performance in Nagashima Tetsuya’s award-winning movie ‘Kokuhaku‘ (English title: ‘Confessions’) and was picked for the much-discussed role in ‘Sadako 3D’. She is following in the steps of many great actresses such as Kimura Tae and Nakama Yukie by portraying this popular horror icon

She commented, “Although it’s actually my first scary role, I was like ‘Again?’ when I heard that I was going to play Sadako and felt no opposition at all for some strange reason.” Modestly she added, “Sadako has become such a popular character that I almost feel sorry to everyone that she’s being played by me.”

“I’m very happy that I can play a character that is being liked by everyone,” Hashimoto continued. “People can’t hate Sadako, therefore they can’t hate me either. Thank you very much for giving me such a precious experience. I hope that many people from my generation, especially senior high school students like me who can watch it for just 1,000 Yen, will come and see it in movie theaters.”

‘Sadako 3D’ is based on Suzuki Koji’s novel ‘S‘, which is the latest installment in the ‘Ring‘ series and scheduled to be release sometime this month as well. This time the story is set in the year 2014 and Sadako manages keep her curse alive by utilizing the rapidly expending technology of cloud computing. By spreading an online clip with Sadako’s curse, some man is helping Sadako to gain strength and to find a human being she can possess in order to make her resurrection complete.

Once she has found the right person, there is no way to hide from her anymore, since she’s now able to appear from almost every monitor. Unlike the previous movies and dramas, Sadako’s appearance won’t be very repulsive, instead she’s going to look like a sweet and beautiful girl. Her beautiful appearance is said to be even more fearsome to everyone who catches a sight of her.

The movie also stars Ishihara Satomi, Seto Koji, and Yamamoto Yusuke, and will open in cinemas nationwide on May 12th.